John Key’s class size hypocrisy
Everyone’s talking about it…except Fairfax.
Just as with the John Banks/Kim Dotcom farce, where the most damaging details were left unreported by Fairfax Media, they have once again avoided publishing the worst of National’s class size debacle, denying their readers the opportunity to draw a fully informed conclusion.
While the New Zealand Herald picked up on the graphic that everyone was talking about yesterday - in which John Key gives his view that smaller class sizes were better for the education of his children – Fairfax completely avoided the story, once again protecting their mates in the Government from the danger of informed citizens.
The fact that the graphic went viral online and was used by a number of blogs including this one, suggests that New Zealanders are outraged by Key’s hypocrisy, and this development is a crucial factor in how voters will judge the Prime Minister’s character. Clearly, it is a factor that Fairfax do not want us to consider.
Instead, today’s Dominion Post has the top two-thirds of page two devoted to how fabulously awesome our dear leader is, with Fairfax political editor and unofficial National Party press secretary Tracy Watkins doing
her usual sycophantic gush, and sounding more like a starstruck 12-year-old girl reviewing a One Direction concert, than the political editor of a major media corporation. And, the comments forum attached to the “story” shows just how much Kiwi’s are wising up to Fairfax’s propaganda. The funny thing is, that these are only the kindest of the comments; the ones they have censored out - including my own – are even closer to the bone.
If you are one of the legions of New Zealanders who are sick of being fed Rightwing propaganda by this appallingly biased Australian company, owned by the world’s richest woman, please share this blog and join us on Facebook. http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/fearfacts/
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10810207
http://fearfactsexposed.wordpress.com/2012/05/01/see-no-evil-hear-no-evil-speak-no-evil/
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/7034847/Key-relishes-international-role
The blogger is honest about his political affiliations.
As the education funding row heats up, the predictable spin coming from supporters of John Key’s Government starts to flow from the usual quarters. Apparently, increasing class sizes isn’t a bad idea at all. Oh no, no, silly. It’s a great idea. It’s just that the Government didn’t promote it very well.
Rightwing blogger and National Party pollster David Farrar assures of this, and so does today’s Dominion Post. The difference of course, is that Farrar is upfront about his political stance, and his readers are able to process his writing with a degree of context and a large pinch of salt. The Dom Post on the other hand, poses day after day as an independent news provider, and fails to furnish its readers with the details of Fairfax Media’s heavy Rightwing political bias.
At Fairfax, where the Government’s backdown was finally acknowledged after this blog pointed out the glaring omission on Wednesday, today’s editorial defends the National Party’s wish to cut teacher numbers and increase class sizes. The editorial argues that the only problem with the policy is the way the Government have butchered its introduction, noting that:
“The impression left was of policy being made on the hoof. A rational readjustment of spending priorities has been made to look like an ideologically driven exercise.”
What they fail to point out is that this impression was left because this is exactly what is happening.
Meanwhile, David Farrar paints the exact same picture on his openly Rightwing blog, and suggests that:
“The Government has stumbled over the implementation of their policy to divert some funding from class sizes to improving teacher quality.”
Both pieces rely on the same out-of-context “research”, picking and choosing the information that is convenient, and ignoring the majority of data, which is completely contradictory to the Government’s case. Both pieces quote Treasury Secretary Gabriel Makhlouf, who has been widely criticised by academics and the education sector for his blinkered, bean-counting conclusions.
The Dom, who have done a thinly-veiled job of running the National Party’s spin on the whole shambles, today relegated the country’s biggest news story to the inside pages, and chose to distract readers by splashing some old fashioned anti-union scaremongering across the front page, drumming up a knuckle-dragging hate frenzy over concerns that unions might like employees to work in safe buildings in the event of an earthquake. Give me strength!
As I have said before, I value free speech greatly, and if Fairfax Media wish to use their publications and the stuff.co.nz website as a platform for Rightwing propaganda, that is their prerogative, but instead of pretending to be a balanced news medium, perhaps they could take a leaf out of Mr Farrar’s book, and be good enough to let their readers know.
My challenge to Fairfax is this; either start providing fair, balanced and accurate journalism, or declare your political bias clearly below the masthead, and let your readers make an informed decision about what is being written.
How can you help? First of all, you can share this blog with your friends. Secondly, you can join us on facebook http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/fearfacts/ . We are growing daily and we will be keeping the pressure on.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10810050
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/7026817/High-rise-workers-trembling
http://www.tumeke.blogspot.co.nz/2012/06/hekia-parata-crashes-back-down-to-earth.html
Acrobatic semantics sidestep the “B” word
Embarrassing education backdown has Nats/Fairfax scrambling for a positive spin.
When is a Government policy backdown not a backdown? Well, when it’s being reported by John Key’s mates at Fairfax Media, ofcourse.
Despite the National Party shooting themselves in the foot over their plans to cut teacher numbers, and then swiftly backtracking when it became clear that the New Zealand public wouldn’t accept it, none of their buddies at Fairfax were going to call it a “backdown”, or – god forbid – a “u-turn”.
In fact, while the New Zealand Herald were doing a great job of reporting the Government’s back-tracking debacle for what it was, Fairfax did their usual National Party PR job, publishing carefully angled headines that perfectly mirrored the Government’s spin.
So, according to stuff.co.nz, it became a “transition” rather than a “u-turn”, and Fairfax helped John Key to push the spin that this was all part of some complex and highly developed policy, rather than the embarrassing backdown being widely reported by less partisan media. Once again, Fairfax Media insult the intelligence of their readers and show a staggering contempt for the New Zealand people, as well as a blatant disregard for basic journalistic principles.
Contrast Fairfax’s regurgitated National Party spin with the New Zealand Herald’s journalism. Where Fairfax publish headlines telling us what John Key wants us to know, the Herald had “Parata is forced to redo her homework” and “Class backdown a mess of National’s own making”. And, while John Hartevelt’s opinion piece on stuff posed as critical anslysis, a quick skim tells informed readers that he is actually just applying a Fairfaxian coating of the Nationa Party’s spin to the whole issue. Over at the Herald, John Armstrong was taking a genuinely analytical approach, noting poignently that: “National is also contradicting its promise that its state sector reforms will not see front-line staff losing their jobs. You do not get more frontline than the classroom”.
The Herald also revealed that most cabinet ministers are sending their own kids to expensive private schools, rather than have them crammed into over-crowded state school classrooms. The hypocrisy is hardly a vote of confidence in their own policy, but don’t expect to read about it any time soon in a Fairfax publication.
The whole fiasco is hugely embarrassing to a Government that is being accused almost daily of having no real plan. The National Party are clearly in a flap and appear to be making policy up on the hoof, confirming the Opposition’s repeated accusations to this effect. It is therefore in the Government’s interests for this sudden policy change to look like it had been intended all along, rather than the result of a sloppy, hastily-delivered u-turn. And, as always, Fairfax Media were glad to oblige. Funny that, when Opposition Leader David Shearer announced a policy change on super funds less than a month ago, the immediate headline from Fairfax ran “Labour in super fund u-turn”. Enough said.
So, what can you do about it? First of all, you can share this blog with your friends. Secondly, you can join us on facebook http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/fearfacts/
We are growing daily, we are putting the pressure on, and we will continue to do so until Fairfax Media start providing New Zealand with a genuine news service, instead of partisan spin and one-sided National Party propaganda.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10809430
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/ministry-of-education/news/article.cfm?o_id=119&objectid=10809436
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/education/news/article.cfm?c_id=35&objectid=10809374
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/7007814/Schools-transition-sped-up
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/7011626/Education-minister-learns-the-hard-way
http://www.tumeke.blogspot.co.nz/2012/05/whats-good-for-goose-isnt-good-for.html
So much for fair, accurate and balanced reporting.
Dominion Post editor Bernadette Courtney has pointed to an increase in readership as a justification for spinning the news into propaganda.
But, let’s be clear about several points here.
Firstly, her piece on page three of today’s Dom Post quotes “readership” rather than “circulation”. This is an old advertising sales strategy to make a publication with poor circulation look more popular. Readership means the number of people who flick through the paper in the smoko room at work, or in the cafe while they’re waiting for their coffee. It is not a reflection of the numbers who actually buy the paper. The fact that the Dom Post is the only daily newspaper in the Wellington region probably has something to do with its high readership, but this in no way means we’re happy about the ongoing political bias. According to their figures, I am a “reader” myself, and you probably are as well. And, I’m sure that Pyongyang’s only daily newspaper has great readership figures too.
Secondly, with the region’s ever-increasing numbers of unemployed, there will no doubt be an army of folks turning to the Dom Post’s pages in their efforts to find work. This is hardly the glowing vindication of partisan political coverage that Courtney claims when she writes: “we take this as a signal that our readers enjoy our commitment to setting the news agenda”.
Her careful wording here is no doubt a response to mounting criticism of Fairfax Media’s Rightwing political bias, and I suppose that, when a media corporation cannot deny publishing propaganda, they must somehow attempt to defend it.
Clearly, Fairfax think it’s okay to mislead New Zealanders and to take the piss out of our democracy, as long as they are selling newspapers. Please share this blog and join us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/fearfacts/ to let them know that this is certainly not okay.
Fairfax owner officially world’s richest woman
Ever wondered why Fairfax only ever tell the wealthy Right’s side of the story?
In another week where Fairfax Media only reported the news from the perspective of the powerful, wealthy political Right, their largest shareholder was named the world’s richest woman, topping BRW magazine’s richlist.
Australian Gina Rinehart is a hard-Right mining billionaire, climate change-denier, and serial polluter who makes over two-million Australian dollars per hour. Little wonder her publications have such a staggering Rightwing bias and a thinly-veiled contempt for the ordinary Kiwi.
Despite the depressed state of the world economy, things for Rinehart are incredibly rosy, with BRW magazine noting that “there is a real possibility that Rinehart will become not just the richest woman in the world but the richest person in the world”.
In a time when print media is struggling to make a profit, we might ask why in the world would such a shrewd operator want to spash her ample cash around a news media corporation like Fairfax? The answer it seems, is that it isn’t a direct financial return she’s after, but simply the power to control the message. In fact, British climate change-denying nutbar Lord Monkton recently advised wealthy polluters to buy media organisations for this very reason.
So, it’s hardly surprising that Fairfax Media have abandoned any obligation to hold the wealthy and powerful to account, and are instead going out of their way to mislead ordinary New Zealanders, and the rest of the world, with their increasingly propagandist reporting.
And, it also goes a long way to explaining why, in the week leading up to the Budget, Fairfax have all but silenced critics and the Opposition, as they continue to spin the news on behalf of New Zealand’s hard-Right, morally bankrupt, National-led Government.
Trickle-up economics - while ordinary folks are working longer and harder, getting paid less, and paying more for everything they buy, guess where the wealth they used to enjoy is trickling up to…
Thanks a lot Fairfax.
So, what can you do about it? First of all, you can share this blog with your friends. Secondly, you can join us on facebook http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/fearfacts/
We are growing daily, we are putting the pressure on, and we will continue to do so until Fairfax Media start providing New Zealand with a genuine news service, instead of partisan spin and one-sided propaganda.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10807909
And Fairfax dutifully ignore it.
As reported by The New Zealand Herald today, Opposition Parties have made sustained attacks on the National-led Government’s economic mismanagement in the lead up to their fourth budget. Pointing to National’s legacy of four years of poor choices, a lack of any plan, and a reliance on dogmatic Rightwing theory over pragmatic solutions, Opposition parties have come out swinging.
As Martyn Bradbury noted on the Tumeke blog, the Greens hiring an economist to critique the budget is a real “stroke of genius”. But, as usual, there isn’t a word about it from Fairfax Media, who are once again starving New Zealanders of our right to balanced and accurate democratic debate. Stuff.co.nz and newspapers like the Dominon Post have once again steered well clear of any genuine criticism of John Key’s Government, and completely avoided giving the Opposition a voice to challenge this Government’s clear lack of economic progress. The fact that the National Party and their freinds at Fairfax Media are so scared of factual economic anylsis, tells us all we need to know about four years of abject failure on the economy; the one thing the National Party are supposed to be good at.
So, while even Britain’s Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron joins US President Obama in advocating for stimulating economic growth, John Key continues to play the broken record of austerity, without any analysis. Fairfax continue to provide Key with an unchallenged platform, free from expert opinion, or from the pesky views of domestic Opposition.
Today on stuff.co.nz, Fairfax published more of their dodgy survey results, with political editor and unofficial National Party spin doctor Tracy Watkins claiming: “Kiwi’s split over cutbacks”. Watkins’ point was that New Zealanders were divided in half over whether her buddies in the National Party had got the ” balance about right in terms of public-service job cuts”. Even her phrasing here betrays her bias, but let’s take a moment to consider the actual figures. Apparently Fairfax surveyed about 2000 of their own readers, and the result was that over 50 per cent thought the cuts had gone too far, while only 43 per cent agreed that the balance was about right. And, let’d be very clear about this; we are talking about 2000 New Zealanders who have been fed a daily diet of biased coverage and Rightwing propaganda by Fairfax Media. So, not only is Watkins midleading us with her 50/50 claims, she’s also basing her figures on the section of New Zealanders who get their political “news” from Fairfax Media, and we all know how balanced that is. So, for Fairfax to claim in bold letters that their survey represents the view of “Kiwis” isn’t just disingenuous propaganda, it is actually straight bullshit. As I pointed out on this blog yesterday, it’s about as accurate as Fox News claiming a survey of their viewers represents the voice of America. In fact, if Fox were to survey 2000 of their audience about whether George W. Bush was right to invade Iraq, we’d probably see a very similar result to the Fairfax readership “surveys” published in the last two days.
On the subject of yesterday’s equally misleading tripe, stuff.co.nz finally got around to publishing more comments to the story late this afternoon. You’ll recall that Fairfax asked their readers whether National or Labour were to blame for New Zealand’s debt. And, surprise surprise, there were many more than the 20 comments they’d published while readers were actually paying attention. Most of them are completely at odds with Fairfax’s claims, and many of the comments berate this media company for their ongoing bias. Little wonder they elected not to add a comments forum to today’s survey story.
Sick and tired of propaganda posing as news? Please share this blog, join us on facebook http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/fearfacts/, and tell your friends to boycott everything that this National Party spin corporation publish. Only a strong public backlash will bring the biased corporate media into line, so let’s bloody have one!
http://www.greens.org.nz/sites/default/files/asset_sales_the_govt_accounts_and_the_nz_economy.pdf
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10807416
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/6961532/Kiwis-split-over-cutbacks-poll
http://www.tumeke.blogspot.co.nz/2012/05/when-will-greens-become-second-major.html
NEWSFLASH: Most Fox viewers blame the black dude
And NZ’s debt not Key’s fault, say some Fairfax readers…
Well bugger me. 
Who knew that a daily diet of propaganda led to a distortion of reality and a molding of opinion?
Despite all the figures, graphs and data showing otherwise, a survey shows that 33% of Fairfax readers blame the previous Labour Government for New Zealand’s ever-increasing debt crisis, and that only 18% blame National. I don’t know about you, but the only surprising part of this information to me is that any of the respondents blamed John Key’s Government. Perhaps the reason stuff stopped publishing readers’ comments on this article after the first 20, was because of criticism to this effect, and the fact that many of their readers get their “real” news elsewhere.
Key has been Fairfax’s golden boy ever since he became leader of the National Party, and the barrage of propaganda they’ve served up as news over the years has been consistently documented by this blog.
Now, under the typically Fairfaxian headline “Labour cops dept blame”, we are “informed” on stuff.co.nz that:
“Voters blame Labour more than National for the country’s current debt levels, according to a nationwide survey of Fairfax newspaper readers. With the two main parties pointing the finger at each other, we asked more than 2000 of our readers who they blamed more.”
Stopped laughing yet? Then, let me continue. The article goes on to say:
“Almost half of those in the survey saw it as effectively ”a plague on both their houses”, with 44 per cent blaming a combination of the Clark and Key governments. But among those who singled out one or the other, 33 per cent saw Labour as being more at fault, while only 18 per cent blamed National more. That is despite a huge blow-out in net core Crown debt since National took office, with a rise from $10 billion in 2008 to $50b now and forecasts it will top $70b by 2015.”
Well, thanks for that Fairfax. Did you also know that in 1930′s Germany, many ordinary people blamed the Jews, and in present day USA, many Fox News viewers still believe that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. Propaganda is a powerful tool, especially when it’s dressed up as independent news.
This illustrates exactly why such powerful, biased media corporations are a very real danger to our democracy. By stifling the debate, controlling the message, and starving the Opposition of comment, media organisations like Fairfax can and do have a frightening influence on our freedom.
Remember how their brainfart polls told readers over and over how the National Party were going to romp back into the Beehive last year? In detailed analysis of the reasons why New Zealanders didn’t vote, it was found that “a large proportion of non-voters cited the polls predicting the National Party’s victory, and decided the election was a foregone conclusion. The percentage of non-voters who said this was a factor was far higher in 2011 than in 2008″, according to The New Zealand Herald.
Critics at the time – myself included – noted the flawed methodology of these polls, and suggested that they were designed more to influence rather than inform voters. The resulting election turnout was the lowest in 120 years, with the supposably invincible National Party pushed much closer than the polls had suggested.
Finally, on the subject of polls and propaganda, Fairfax Media still haven’t mentioned the latest Roy Morgan polls, published by more moderate media last week, which show that National would be thrown out of Government if an election were held tomorrow. Funny that, when their chums in the National Party are riding high in the polls, stuff.co.nz and the Dom Post can’t find a font big enough, but when the news is bad…well, it just ain’t news. Orwellian, Fairfaxian, call that what you will.
But, what can YOU do about it?
Well, you can join us on facebook http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/fearfacts/, share this blog on all your networks, cancel your subscriptions, and tell your friends. We can, must, and WILL demand better from foriegn-owned corporate news media, if we are to preserve our fragile democracy. Kia ora New Zealand.
http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/fearfacts/
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10801848
